Photo Release -- CloudGenix Secures $9 Million in Series A Funding to Pursue Vision for Software-Defined Enterprise WANs

Secures and Simplifies Connecting People With Their Applications in the Hybrid Enterprise; Embarks on Multi-Billion Dollar Global Market Opportunity

April 30, 2014 08:00 ET | Source:CloudGenix

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Kumar Ramachandran, Founder/CEO, CloudGenix Prior to founding CloudGenix, Kumar was Director of Product Management at Cisco, leading products for the multi-billion dollar branch routing and WAN optimization businesses. Prior to Cisco, Kumar held software and network engineering roles, developing solutions for companies such as Citibank and Providian Financial. Kumar holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Bombay.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 30, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CloudGenix announced today that it has received $9 million in Series A funding from Charles River Ventures and Mayfield Fund. CloudGenix is pioneering a new product category, Software-Defined Enterprise WAN (SDEwan). CloudGenix SDEwan virtualizes enterprise networks and securely brings together users and high performance cloud and data center applications, while radically reducing remote office infrastructure requirements.

According to Peter Christy, Research Director for networking at 451 Research, "Just as the hypervisor transformed how organizations use servers, virtualization of the network infrastructure holds the potential to cause a similar revolution in enterprise networking, first in the data center and now the WAN. And because effective WAN management is far more complex than server management, the benefits promise to be even greater. The CloudGenix software-defined enterprise WAN is an early mover in this emerging market making the company worth watching."

The rapid adoption of hybrid clouds and hybrid networks is driving the need for new ways of deploying applications and services to employees across the organization. "CloudGenix is remaking the multi-billion dollar WAN and network services market," said Max Gazor, a partner with Charles River Ventures, who was selected to the Forbes 2014 Midas Brink List. "Its software-defined enterprise WAN solution is disruptive to incumbent networking vendors from a business model and technology perspective. The team has a thoughtful architectural approach that will enable customers to easily absorb the breakthrough innovation, while extending the value of existing WAN investments".

According to leading analysts, the bulk of IT spending will be for cloud computing platforms and applications with nearly half of large enterprises having cloud deployments by the end of 2017. However, the complexity of networking is stalling many of the benefits of hybrid applications and hybrid networks.

"We see a once in a decade opportunity for a new category of remote office network infrastructure, a multi-billion dollar market opportunity," said Navin Chaddha, managing director with the Mayfield Fund who has been ranked on the Forbes Midas List of Top 100 Tech Investors for six years. "The transition to hybrid cloud application delivery is a catalyst for change. The CloudGenix team has a unique understanding of the branch WAN and services business, having built multi-billion dollar products in this space".

To build this new solution, CloudGenix has assembled a team that has previously delivered industry-leading products in networking, SDN, cloud, security and web-scale applications. The company is led by CEO Kumar Ramachandran, who was previously Director at Cisco, responsible for products addressing remote office WAN and network services. According to Kumar, "We have an exciting opportunity ahead of us to help customers realize the benefits of cloud and virtualization across the entire enterprise".

Forward-looking Go-To-Market partners recognize the potential of SDEwans and are working with CloudGenix to bring its solutions to market. "CloudGenix recognizes that the software-defined revolution shouldn't stop with the data center," said Tim Coats, director of Innovation Research with Trace3. "The same type of functionality, flexibility and savings should be extended to the WAN. Software-defined WANs are not only the next logical step for remote connections, but they lay the foundation for an incipient market in service delivery. CloudGenix is well positioned to both capitalize and even define these markets."

CloudGenix will use the capital to bring the first version of its product to market and to build out its go-to-market strategy.

About CRV

Founded in 1970, Charles River Ventures is one of the nation's oldest and most successful early-stage venture capital firms with approximately $1.4 billion under management. CRV is dedicated to helping exceptional entrepreneurs turn their ideas into the next category leaders in high growth technology sectors. For more than four decades, CRV funds have been consistently ranked among the industry's top performers. CRV has offices in Cambridge, MA and Menlo Park, CA. For more information, visit www.crv.com.

About Mayfield Fund

Mayfield Fund is a global venture capital firm with over $2.6 billion under management and a 44-year history of investing in relationships. Mayfield invests primarily in early-stage IT companies that leverage the drivers of mobile, cloud/SaaS, social, and big data. Since its founding in 1969, the firm has invested in more than 500 companies, resulting in over 112 IPOs and more than 150 mergers or acquisitions. For more information, visit www.mayfield.com.

About CloudGenix

CloudGenix (www.cloudgenix.com) is a new breed of networking company that is redefining and simplifying how companies connect people anywhere in the enterprise with applications across public, private and hybrid clouds. CloudGenix virtualizes enterprise networks and securely brings together users and high performance cloud and data center applications, while radically reducing remote office infrastructure requirements. To build this new solution, CloudGenix has assembled a team that has previously delivered industry-leading products in networking, SDN, cloud, security and web-scale applications. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, CloudGenix is privately held with funding from Charles River Ventures and the Mayfield Fund.

Kumar Ramachandran, Founder/CEO, CloudGenix Prior to founding CloudGenix, Kumar was Director of Product Management at Cisco, leading products for the multi-billion dollar branch routing and WAN optimization businesses. Prior to Cisco, Kumar held software and network engineering roles, developing solutions for companies such as Citibank and Providian Financial. Kumar holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Bombay.

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